Dr Rosemary Golding

Professional biography

My research covers areas of institutional and cultural history of music in nineteenth-century Britain. I am interested in musical identities, and the history of the music profession. More recently I have written about organists and organ recitals, professional organisation and accreditation in the 1890s, and music in lunatic asylums. 

My most recent publication is a large-scale documentary history of music in nineteenth-century Britain. Commissioned by Routledge, the four volumes cover a range of topics charting the ways in which music was discussed and described in nineteenth-century print, from autobiographies to examinations of musical listening, from descriptions of concerts to philosophical texts. The volumes draw on my wide-ranging interests across the music and musical practices of nineteenth-century Britain, and offered a valuable opportunity to bring much of this research together. Details of the publication are available here: Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain - 1st Edition - Rosemary Golding (routledge.com)

My current research draws on my long-standing interests in the relationship between music and health, and in the historical perceptions of music's health-giving properties. This intersects with my work on the identities and discourse surrounding music in nineteenth-century Britain. My current project is focussed around music in British asylums during the nineteenth century and I have published a monograph on this subject, drawing on a rich body of archive material: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-78525-3. My research blog is available here: https://musichealthandhappiness.wordpress.com/

Some other recent research has been published in a blog post here: http://fass.open.ac.uk/school-arts-humanities-music/news/music-moral-management-and-mental-health-what-can-we-learn

In 2013 my first monograph, Music and Academia in Victorian Britain, was published by Ashgate. This book traces the development of music as a university subject at four British universities during the nineteenth century: Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and London. See https://www.routledge.com/Music-and-Academia-in-Victorian-Britain/Golding/p/book/9781138276659 This was followed by an edited collection of essays on the Music Profession in Britain 1780-1920. Details of the book and its contents can be found here: https://www.routledge.com/The-Music-Profession-in-Britain-1780-1920-New-Perspectives-on-Status/Golding/p/book/9781138291867

I am keen to hear from potential PhD students interested in any area of music in nineteenth-century Britain, in the social and institutional history of music, in the history of music and health, and in music education.

Selected Publications

For a full list please see the publications tab

I have contributed to modules across the Arts and Music curriculum, working on module teams including AA100, A224, AA302, A870, A871 and A877. I chaired the Music MA modules A870 and A871 between September 2011 and November 2014 and the second-level module A224 between August 2017 and March 2018. I wrote two online units on research skills for the Music Level 3 module A342 and a case study for MA Music module A873. I am currently chairing production of a new Music MA module, A890, for which I am contributing to five units.

As Staff Tutor I manage tuition on a range of modules across the Arts disciplines, currently A111 and Music MA (A873, A874). I worked as an Associate Lecturer on the introductory interdisciplinary module AA100, and the third-level music module AA302.

I supervise a number of PhD students, including topics in music and its social history in nineteenth-century Britain.

As Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching in Arts (2014-15) I had responsibilities across the faculty's curriculum, including developing new module content, teaching and assessment policy, employability and accessibility. 

I have published on my work on the history of music and mental health in The Conversation (March 2023) and was interviewed on Three Counties Radio on Sunday 23 April Babs Michel - London Marathon shout-outs - BBC Sounds starting at 3:12:36. I have also worked with composer Victoria Bernath and soprano Ruth Hopkins on creative work inspired by my research.

My current AHRC-funded Network 'Psychiatry and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Britain' involves collaboration with the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, London and the Crichton, Dumfries. Both institutions are part of the history of psychiatric institutions and have a particularly important place in the history of the arts in psychiatric care and treatment. The Network brings together historians, scholars and practitioners in heritage, creative and health sectors to evaluate historical study and envisage new ways of collaboration and engagement.

I was also awarded a grant from the National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange to develop my collaboration with the Crichton.

I am external examiner of the International Foundation Year in Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at Royal Holloway, University of London.